In 1995, they sold the Sisu to purchase the 34’ Wilbur he had until August 2003 and then took delivery of a new custom 42’
Wilbur/Westmac. Stret was encouraged to join the Montauk Boatmen and Captains Association in 1998. Soon after, Stret became the
organization’s Secretary and served in that position until 2006, when he was elected president. Stret has since retired from funeral directing
and has been able to fish full time.
After a couple of years of improvement in his new hobby, Stret upgraded to a 25’ Lures inboard and repowered it with a Lehman 6 cylinder
diesel. One night when having dinner with some other couples, they started talking about sharking with Frank Mundus and four of them
decided they were going to give shark fishing a try and, that same summer, Stret changed the spools on his 4/0 Penn Senators from wire
line to Dacron. They had the greatest time imaginable running out to Montauk, fishing along the way, and sharking off Montauk Point. In the
beginning, not knowing where to go, they got a chart from Montauk Marine Basin that marked where to catch the different species of fish.
With the aid of a compass and a flasher depth finder, that seldom worked, they went out to where the sharks lived and were ecstatic when
they started catching them. Each year after that first adventure, he set aside a week to bring his boat to Montauk for sharking while learning
from Frank Mundus’ book and their own mistakes.
The "Freeport Boys" that worked on the Starsteam with Capt. Richie Kessinger would come
to fish with him, and in return, Stret would deadhead for them. About this time, he was
advised to get a Coast Guard license because of the amount of fishing he was doing and
issues about liability.
During the winter of 1979, Stret and Scott built a 30’ Sisu in the funeral home garage that was finished and
launched on Memorial Day, 1980. In 1982, the fishing in Hempstead Harbor dwindled and the "Freeport boys" talked
him into bringing the boat to Montauk to commercial fish for blues at Cartwrite. In time, they ventured into the
other species, cod, blacks, tuna and striped bass, and Stret’s boats have been in Montauk ever since. With the
"Freeport Boys" not always being available, he started taking charters from time to time when work in Glen Head
permitted.
Stret Whitting was born in Glen Cove, New York as the first fifth-generation,
Long Island Whitting. His education includes Sea Cliff Grammar School, North
Shore High School, and The Simmons School of Embalming in Syracuse. After his
formal education, he apprenticed as a Funeral Director for his father at the family
funeral home in Glen Head and then owned and operated the Whitting Funeral
Home from 1963 to 2002 with his twin brother Scott.
As a youngster, the family belonged to the Sea Cliff Yacht Club where he
learned to sail. When Stret and his brother Scott were between 10 and 12
years old, they built their first boat, a small rowboat from scrap lumber
their father had in the garage. They had great fun with it the first day it
was finished, mooring it at Rum Point, Sea Cliff only to find it missing the
next morning and never to be found again.
In the mid 1960’s, Stret and some friends chartered Frank Mundus’ vessel three times for shark
fishing and found Montauk to have wonderful fishing. Stret and Scott also enjoyed scuba diving,
but found it hard to dive from the beach. Therefore, they purchased their first boat, a 19’
Slickcraft I/O, and used it mostly after work to look for lobster and blackfish at Davidson’s
breakwater, Glen Cove. One day when visiting a local tackle dealer, the dealer told Stret about the
mackerel in Hempstead Harbor and fitted him out with rods, mackerel rigs, and the location to
find the fish. Stret, his wife Joan, and three boys (Codge, Dave, and Drew) caught 44 mackerel
on that first evening, and he was hooked on fishing. From that day on, he fished every morning
before work and learned as he went along from other fishermen and lobstermen around Glen
Cove Creek.
Stret's Biography